Matron's Stone House
by BalthierFlare
Summary: Squall and the others reminisce. They remember a certain day at Matron's house.


**Hey Everyone! Yeah, I'm not writing a parody! Whoo! Let's start!!! Oh…and if you haven't gotten to Trabia Garden yet, I suggest you not read this…**

**This I how the sections are shown: **

**Adult Section: - -**

**Child Section: - - -**

**Disclaimer: SquareSoft (now SquareEnix) owns Final Fantasy 8. That company owns everything in it, even the aliens.**

**- -**

Irvine sat down on the pavement of the basketball court at Trabia Garden. Rinoa stood beside the basketball hoop listening in. The whole group waited tentatively for their arrival in the ongoing story.

"Yeah, so like, I remember the orphanage I grew up in." Irvine continued, talking about Matron, 'crybaby' Zell, bossy Quistis, hyper Selphie, Seifer the bully, himself and of course, poor little Squall.

Everyone listened, reconnecting, saying how they remembered Matron's stone house. Eventually, they realized they should visit Matron's orphanage, or at least try to find it. Everyone boarded Balamb Garden and they circled the southernmost continent until they finally saw the familiar structure.

Irvine immediately ran to the building, "Wow, the memories are surely coming back to me!"

"Yeah…ugh! I hated being bullied by Seifer!" Zell cried out before violently stomping on the ground.

They all searched around the house, reminiscence of their childhood flooding in their thoughts. Irvine walked to the front steps and sat down, "Man, I remember that one day…" he trailed off into another narrative speech.

- - -

"Irvy, Irvy! Come on we're playing a game!" Selphie shouted to Irvine.

"Sephie, what game are we playing?" Irvine responded, standing up.

"WAR!" Selphie ran into the backyard, Irvine closely following.

"Reporting for duty, siiiir!" Selphie called out to General Seifer, wearing a folded paper hat, then saluted him.

"I see you've brought reinforcements!" Seifer said, pointing towards Irvine.

"Irvy wants to play." Selphie explained.

"You guys can't play until you have uniforms!" Seifer exclaimed.

"Oh." Selphie replied then grabbed Irvine's hand, "Come on!"

- -

"You brought me to Matron. She grabbed two pieces of paper and folded them into two paper hats." Irvine stated.

"Yeah! They looked like the ones at fast food places!" Selphie added, jumping with excitement.

"I remember that!" Zell jumped in, filling Irvine's narrator role.

- - -

Selphie and Irvine stepped out of a side room, both holding their hats to their heads to prevent it from falling off.

Zell's mouth dropped, "WHOA! Those hats are really cool! I want one!"

"Matwyn makes them." Irvine said, and then ran with Selphie back to Seifer.

"Humph! I'm getting Matwyn to make me a cool hat!" Zell stomped into Matron's room, "I wanna hat!"

Matron sighed, tucked a piece of her long black hair behind her ear, and then picked up another piece of paper. She folded another hat for Zell and off he went.

- -

"I loved that hat! Man, I wonder where that went…" Zell pondered.

"I can't remember where I was…" Quistis said. "Oh…I think I was down at the beach…"

- - -

Quistis sat down in the packed sand, rolling up her overall's pant legs. She stood and walked a bit into the water.

"Jeez! That's cold!" She hopped back onto the sand, "Owie! That's hot!" She scampered up to the hill, noticing Seifer enlisting her fellow orphans. She watched intently.

"I'm not letting a crybaby like Zell into _my _army!" Seifer hollered, "Sephie is okay and so is Irvy. But I need more people!" He commanded.

"Hey! I wanna play!" Zell complained.

"No!" Seifer barked.

"I wanna plaaaaaaay!" Zell continued.

"I said, NO!" Seifer bent down and picked up a clump of dirt. He then threw it at Zell, hitting his bright red shirt and leaving a light imprint of brown.

The children's faces dropped. Selphie's mouth was wide; Irvine's expression was one of shock. Quistis and Seifer shared a look of disgust.

Zell's eyes grew wide, the edges of his mouth curled, and suddenly a wail loud enough to wake the dead sounded, "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! Seifer I'm TELLING!" He ran off towards the house.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Quistis scolded, "I should be the leader here, since all you do is hit your…" She paused then said, "…V-v-ol-unn-tee-rs with dirt!"

Seifer's frown grew larger, "I didn't do nothing!"

"Seifer!" Matron called out, "Seifer!"

"Jeez!" He shouted then ran down the slope, along the beach towards the lighthouse.

- -

"Yep, he got in a lot of trouble." Zell said, adding in a small chuckle.

"Yeah, he ran all the way to the lighthouse without stopping." Quistis stated, "I remember how impressed I was by that." She laughed, "Then I become the commander."

- - -

"Good morning, crew. I am your co-man-dur Quistis." She said, pacing around Irvine and Selphie.

"Hey guys! I'm here!" Zell ran into line, wiping tears from his face.

"Welcome, Zell." Quistis nodded, "Everyone, we are going to practice marching!"

"But…I though we were going to play WARRRRR!" Selphie screeched.

"We're doing things MY way!" Quistis advised, "And we're going to have fun!"

"Um, okies!" Selphie replied.

Just as they were about to start, Matron walked by with a sulking Seifer close behind. "We're going to have lunch soon, children."

"Aww…"

They all knew what this meant; they were to report to the kitchen, help set the table and serve lunch, then take their seats.

Selphie helped Irvine set the table, as Quistis ordered Zell to carry one plate of peanut butter and banana sandwiches to the table. Once everything was set, they all sat.

"Matwyn, may I have a sandwich?" The four kids questioned simultaneously.

Matron Edea handed the sandwiches to each child and walked out of the room carrying two saucers out of the room. She took one to Squall, sitting on a bed in the children's nursery, and the other to Seifer sitting in her room on a stool in the corner.

- -

"Wait…why was Squall sitting on the bed? I can't remember…" Quistis asked.

"I can't think of that either, but I know that's where he was for some reason…" Irvine said looking at Squall, "Do you remember, Squall?"

Squall looked down at the ground. He knew why he was sitting on the bed, but said nothing.

"Yeah, I can't 'member either!" Selphie said, "Don't worry about it Squall, we'll remember someday!"

Squall thought back to that lonely time.

- - -

"Sis…Sis, I want you to be back here…Elle…" Squall mumbled, he thought about playing with the other kids, "No. I can be strong by myself!" He pushed off of the bed to stand and walked into the living room.

As he walked into the room he heard Quistis drilling the other children, who were surprisingly, still having fun.

Squall looked outside longingly at Irvine, Selphie, Zell and Quistis. He wanted to play with them, but he needed to become strong by himself, so instead of playing, he walked out the front door.

He stood on the front steps, looking out at the cloudy sky.

"Sis….I miss you…" He murmured again. He was startled by an abrupt rumble of thunder, he did not move, but he knew it would start raining soon.

He could hear the other children running inside, "Matwyn, Matwyn! Thunder!" They all shouted.

He listened to Matron comforting them, telling them it would be all right: they were safe inside the house.

Squall did not move, "I can be strong by myself, Sis." Another rumble of thunder came, a lightning bolt streaking the sky and rain ensued. As the rain pellets grew larger, slamming into the house and him, he still did not move.

"I can be strong by myself, Elle. I can be strong all by myself."

**Yep…that's the end. Just some little oneshot thingy. I decided to end it like that to show Squall's outlook. It may be abrupt, but I think it was an okay place to stop. **

**Tell me how I did! Please review! **


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